Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Take Five with A-Sun Commissioner Ted Gumbart

College basketball's "most wonderful time of the year," A-Sun hoops, conference realignment, the gridiron and the future of college athletics are all topics addressed by Atlantic Sun Conference Commissioner Ted Gumbart in this inaugural "Take Five" blog.

1. We are in the midst of March Madness, when interest in
college basketball peaks. How do A‑Sun schools benefit from all the attention
focused on basketball during March?

It is amazing to see
the continued growth in the public fascination with “brackets,” “bubble teams,”
“championship week” and all the madness surrounding conference basketball
tournaments and postseason play. Whether we look at TV ratings, on-line viewing
data, website hits, and now social media data – nothing compares with the
public and media interest in our activities around tournament time. Noting that
this is when the spotlight burns the brightest, the teams that have a
successful finish to the season provide great national exposure for their
universities overall. The emotional connection to a winning basketball team
provides not only a means to solidify affiliation with the university, but it
inspires multiple development benefits, from an increase in overall student
applications, to increased alumni giving, to building an increased season
ticket base to support the program’s continued growth. We recognize these
benefits and aim to capitalize on them to the greatest degree possible.

2. The A-Sun has initiated a Basketball Improvement Program.
What are the ultimate goals of the program?

The A-Sun Basketball
Improvement Program is designed to raise the level of achievement – and thereby
the university-wide benefits derived from that success – in a comprehensive
manner for the entire membership. In the simplest terms, we aim to raise the
overall level of play in the A‑Sun to the point where we have men’s and women’s
teams annually competing for at-large NCAA bids. We’ve noted the great positive
benefits that accrue to the university when basketball teams have success. The
next step is getting all of our schools to work together towards a unified
goal. We know raising the level of basketball in the A-Sun will require
investments, but our Presidents Council has committed to this. We have
committed to postseason play the past three years and seen record-setting participation
for A-Sun schools. In that period we’ve had eight different schools playing
postseason basketball, we’ve hosted eight postseason games the past two years,
with three home postseason games set this week. Plus, we’re winning! Five
different teams have won games in postseason play just the past two years, highlighted
by Mercer’s men claiming the 2012 CIT Championship. We are building a
foundation where the team and institutional goals are rightly set on reaching
postseason and performing well once there. We’re also investing a great deal
into our television production capabilities to help share the success of our
teams on the floor with the broadest audience possible. We also have invested
in expert guidance in building this plan by hiring our basketball consultant,
Mr. Greg Shaheen. The goals are reachable, and commitment to a cohesive plan
will absolutely allow us to continue our positive trajectory and move up to a
nationally recognized basketball conference.

3. Conference realignment continues to be an issue of
national focus. How do the changes in conferences such as the Big Ten, Big East
and Atlantic 10 affect others, and specifically the A‑Sun?

I have consulted my
magic crystal ball and have seen the future. I’m just not at liberty to divulge
that future because each time I look, the outcome is different. In all
seriousness, conference realignment affects everyone except maybe the Ivy
League. We are all affected either through changes in membership, or through
the implementation of strategies to retain and or expand current membership. We
are no different. A few years ago we decided to be deliberately pro-active in
maximizing growth opportunities for our student-athletes, teams and
institutions. We have expanded not only through full membership, with Northern
Kentucky adding a very well-rounded program that fits our desires for top level
basketball, but through the addition of sports as well. The A-Sun was the first
in the nation to sponsor sand volleyball after it was recognized by the NCAA,
and we now have an automatic bid to the national championship – the only
conference in the country that provides that opportunity to its
student-athletes. We merged with the National Lacrosse Conference to form an
A-Sun women’s lacrosse program that will determine an NCAA automatic qualifier
this spring – an opportunity that wouldn’t exist without the efforts of our
membership. Next spring we begin men’s lacrosse through a collaborative effort between
schools from the A-Sun, Southern, Big South and A-10, and our A-Sun champion is
eligible for qualification into the NCAA championships in our first season. We
strongly believe there are many ways to work within the NCAA rules governing
conference structure to preserve and enhance competitive and promotional
opportunities for our student-athletes, teams and universities. We plan to
continue a strong leadership role in building opportunities.

4. Football is a sport that more A-Sun schools are either playing
or expressing an interest in playing. Could football become an A-Sun sport?

No doubt – football
could certainly become an A-Sun sport. We are in the service industry and aim
to deliver what our clients – our member universities – desire from the
marketplace. The increase in the number of football-playing institutions, as
well as expansion of the FCS postseason championship bracket, both present
obvious growth opportunities for us. We’ve accomplished a great deal in
building championship opportunities with various models, including swimming and
diving (the A-Sun is a partner in the four conference operation of the Coastal
Collegiate Swimming Association along with the Big South, Southern and
Mid-Eastern Athletic conferences), lacrosse and sand volleyball. We could
simply declare football a sport and build up, we could find partners that could
form a new football league, we could execute a collaborative model, or even
work with an existing AQ league to build towards a shared commitment in
providing two AQ opportunities. We continue to work on various future outcomes
and have not ruled out anything regarding the initiation of football as an
A-Sun sport.

5. With college athletics getting much publicity recently in
areas such as compliance and infractions, conference realignment, big money
television contracts, and differences between Division I members that invest
$100 million in athletics versus $10 million or less, what do you see in the
future as to how college athletics operates?

Well that is the
proverbial $64,000 question for sure. You know how my crystal ball works, but
overall I see continued overall success for the college model of athletics.
Despite the issues that might have carried the broadest recent headlines, the
NCAA and college athletics are wildly successful. The learning laboratory that
intercollegiate athletics provides is incomparable. The graduation success
rates continue to climb and student-athletes continue to graduate at a higher
level than student bodies overall. Athletics successfully teaches so many life
skills, and team participation is a kind of glue that keeps the students in
school and on track for graduation. Remember, Division I includes more than
400,000 student-athletes. We are committed to our role as educators and we are
extremely proud to be part of an enterprise that truly is, as we say in the
A-Sun, Building Winners for Life.

Commissioner Gumbart is working his 28th year in college
athletics, his 22nd year in conference administration and his seventh as
commissioner of the A-Sun.

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